Suppliers said they aren't worried about a shortage, but they said growing demand for things such as pellets and compressed wood bricks has created a wait. And that's on top of a shortage of dry cord wood.

After last year's frigid temperatures, many New Hampshire residents are getting an early start to stocking up on alternative fuel sources to heat their homes, only to find that it may take a while to get their orders.

"They give a lot more convenience than cord wood because you can fill up the hopper on the woodstove and kind of let it go," said Dave Nydam, CEO of woodpellets.com. "And they also run off thermostats, and can fill it up and forget it, and they are also very efficient in terms of the cost of BTUs on heating."

"If you are checking market prices on wood pellets, you can convert a ton of wood pellets equal to 111 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil, so you can do the math and figure out on your own the potential savings really quickly," said David Monson of Armstrong Hearth & Home.

But some area businesses said that after last year's frigid temperatures and the pellet shortage that followed, customers are stocking up early this time around.

"We are seeing definitely a big increase in demand for them, so it's been a record year for us," Nydam said.

"It really, really started in August," said Robert Demers of Demers Garden Center. "It usually starts around Labor Day. This year, in August, truckloads and truckloads have been going out of here. Just to give you an idea, just in September alone, we delivered out over 1,500 pallets to homeowners."

Sellers said each pallet of wood pellets heats an average home for a little more than a month for a cost of about $300.

While Demers said he has plenty of pellets and compressed wood bricks for wood stoves in stock right now, when the cold weather hits, distributors expect the demand to skyrocket.

"Don't wait until it gets cold, and don't wait until you are out of pellets," Nyad said. "In many cases, ... you are going to have a bit of a lead time if you're having pellets delivered to you."

Distributors said new orders for pellets or wood bricks are backed up into the first half of November.